Skulls of the Shogun Review: Streamlined Strategy Done Right

The long-awaited turn-based strategy game shows how it's done.

Multiplayer is where the game is at its best, particularly if you can gather some friends together for some local action. Online play does work well, and there is even an asynchronous mode so you can exchange turns with other players at your own pace over the course of hours, days, or weeks. The asynchronous mode connects with the PC and mobile versions of the game, although I was limited to playing on and against others on Xbox 360. That's because the latter versions are restricted to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 devices, respectively, greatly limiting the potential audience for this feature. With Microsoft being the game's publisher and it being reluctant to open up Xbox Live, it's difficult to foresee iPad support being introduced, as was being considered earlier in development, and that's a real shame as I could see it being a nice fit on there. Without more widespread support, asynchronous support seems less useful than it could be (especially since it can be slow on 360), but it's appreciated nonetheless.

Part of the reason I wish iOS (and Android) were supported is because the AI is not intelligent enough to put up much of a fight. The single-player campaign, which I found exceedingly easy, is worth playing through once for its charming humor. But the entertainment of going back and trying to grind out the optional objectives on each -- even the fun ones, like only being able to attack with your general -- is lessened by how dumb the AI can be. It seems to lack an understanding that its general is to be protected first and foremost; more than one time, I won a mission I was replaying because the general attacked a unit of mine, apparently unaware the inevitable counterattack would kill him.

The AI also routinely pays little attention to positioning, haphazardly leaving its units near ledges so that they can be easily knocked off. Another common occurrence is when the AI attacks different units, killing none of them, rather than concentrating its fire on a single unit and ensuring it has fewer foes to potentially take hits from. More than anything, the single-player is a way of experiencing the story and learning the essentials to prepare you for multiplayer, so the AI is not as major a detriment to the game as a whole as it could have been. It is a shame, though, that the AI prevents skirmishes against the computer from being worthwhile unless you're interested in learning what not to do.

In addition to the AI problems, an analog stick proves to be far from a desirable input method for selecting units or structures. At times it'll do exactly what you want it to, but when an area gets crowded, it can be really frustrating to have the cursor jump to a unit across the map rather than the shrine an inch from where it was located a moment ago. The d-pad can be used to easily cycle through friendly units, but that doesn't help when you want to highlight an enemy unit or a shrine. Even once you do have what you want selected, moving around can sometimes prove to be a hassle because of the way units are essentially sucked into tiles they can stand on. Trying to stand in a bamboo field when units are already in it can also be a struggle, as can finding the one small area at the end of your movement circle that allows you to attack a distant enemy. Even the computer struggles with the latter -- from time to time you'll see an AI unit running back and forth, failing to get to the point it apparently wants to reach. It's funny the first time it happens, but when you just want it to be your turn again, it gets old in a hurry.

These issues, obnoxious as they can be, don't detract from what is an otherwise great console strategy game. It might never be a major tournament game obsessed over by the most hardcore of players, but it's not because strategy is entirely absent; it's always fun when you reach the point in a match where you have to decide whether to bring your general, who is a very powerful unit, on the offensive or not. And there's something to be said for its approachability. Five moves per turn keeps things from being overwhelming and encourages a fast pace, and it's easy enough to pick up that a friend of mine was able to pull out a win against me before long despite the edge I had in playtime. It's also a game that has such a great sense of humor and is filled with so many nice visual touches -- from the way the general puts his swords away when he's out of actions to the way units cower to indicate when they're unable to counterattack -- that it's hard to let what amount to relatively minor quibbles stand in the way of wholeheartedly recommending it.

It's there

A Few Points

I think this is available for all Windows phones. Mine is a pre-7, but still has the game available.It's also playable on the Surface, for the 4 people out there with one of those.And lastly, I expect all the same people who complain about Nintendo making them buy the same game multiple times for multiple devices to complain here, too. Otherwise, you are hypocrites.